It looks like witch-hunting of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has started in a big way, with the latter taking aggressive posture on the NDA government at the Centre and the Telugu Desam Party government in Andhra Pradesh.

Within a week of the Central Bureau of Investigation filing a petition in the special court seeking cancellation of Jagan’s bail on technical grounds, the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday launched raids on various shell companies supposedly related to Jagan in Hyderabad and Kolkata, as part of a nation-wide operation.

The ED conducted raids against hundreds of shell firms across 16 States. This action is a part of the directive given to the ED under a Special Task Force (STF) by the government as per the instructions from the PMO. The agency has unearthed thousands of shell companies especially in Mumbai and Delhi.

These shell firms have been allegedly involved in money laundering and have transferred money when exchange of the old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 was allowed Around three hundred companies supposedly have converted hundreds of crores of black money into white money.

The action is being carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to check instances of money laundering and illegal foreign exchange transactions.

Needless to say, these raids are being viewed as part of art-twisting tactics of the Centre to demoralise the political opponents. In the coming days, such actions are likely to take aggressive turn.

One won’t be surprised, if TDP supremo prevails upon the Centre to get Jagan convicted so as to get him disqualified for contesting elections.